Announcements

Epidemic Sound Raises $5 Million Series A Funding

May 22, 2014

STOCKHOLM – May 22, 2014 – Epidemic Sound, whose production music library is used by TV broadcasters, production companies and online video creators all over the world, today announced it has received $5 million in Series A funding from the venture capital firm Creandum, best known for early investments in companies such as Spotify, iZettle and Vivino.

Production of visual content is growing exponentially today, and music in this content is essential for creating a rich, high quality viewer experience. Approximately 90% of all visual content uses production music to achieve this goal. Until Epidemic Sound launched, incorporating music into visual content has been legally complicated, financially challenging, technically sub served and a reporting nightmare due to the structure of music licenses today.

Epidemic Sound is the first professional quality music library that visual content creators can use in any country, on any platform, forever. And, unlike traditional production music libraries, no additional charges, reporting or restrictions are ever required of anyone.

“Epidemic Sound is to broadcasters and visual content producers what Spotify and Beats are to consumers,” said Epidemic Sound CEO and Co-founder Oscar Höglund. “In less than a year we signed up a majority of the Swedish broadcasters; the following year we did the same with all broadcasters in Northern Europe. It’s now time to introduce our services to the rest of the world.”

A few of Epidemic Sound’s current customers include a majority of TV broadcaster in Northern Europe, including TV4 and SVT in Sweden; YLE and MTV3 in Finland; TV2 and Discovery in Norway; RTL Nederland in Holland; and Channel5/Viacom in the U.K. Some recently launched co-operations with multi channel networks (MCNs) include Disney’s Maker Studios in the U.S. and Mediakraft in Germany.

The Series A funds will be used by Stockholm-based Epidemic Sound to expand recently opened operations in Holland, Germany, the U.K. and U.S.

”We started Epidemic Sound because we saw that music licensing was totally broken and must be reinvented,” said Höglund. “Musicians weren’t paid, broadcasters weren’t served, and lawsuits were rampant. For musicians and producers alike, Epidemic Sound represents a total sea change. Because Epidemic Sound purchases every track when it’s written, music creators are always guaranteed fair compensation regardless of music use. And, by owning 100% of the music in our library we can make it easy for TV broadcasters and online video creators to buy and use.”

Since the company was started in 2009, over 5,000 composers have been screened and 200 chosen to build the Epidemic Sound library that now has more then 30,000 tracks. The chosen composers are continuously mentored by a select production team led by company co-founder Peer Åström, an award-winning producer with the world record for the most ever entries on the U.S. Billboard chart, and productions for Madonna, Kelly Clarkson and Enrique Iglesias to name only a few. In addition to his work at Epidemic Sound, Åström produces all of the music for the FOX hit show Glee.

Fundamentally changing the way production music can be used by broadcasters and publishers was the driving factor behind Creandum’s decision to invest in Epidemic Sound,

“Epidemic Sound fixes a huge problem for any video producer – from national broadcasters to YouTube’s largest MCNs – whose content is watched online around the world on a variety of devices,” said Creandum General Partner Staffan Helgesson, the first institutional investor in Spotify. “There will always be times when you want that song by a popular artist, but for the vast majority of music used in professional productions, the Epidemic Sound method can radically change how music will be licensed.”

About Creandum

Creandum is the leading Nordic venture capital firm investing in innovative and fast-growing technology companies within consumer, software and hardware industries. From its offices in Stockholm and Palo Alto, California, the firm has more than $350 million under management, and over the last decade has invested in more than 30 companies including Spotify, Nonstop Games, Wrapp, Cint, Vivino, iZettle and Videoplaza. For more information, please visit www.creandum.com.

About Epidemic Sound

Epidemic Sound is reinventing production music with the first library that gives visual content creators use of professional-quality soundtracks in any country, on any platform, forever, for only a small fee. No additional charges are ever required of anyone. Founded in 2009 by award-winning Swedish music, TV and Internet entrepreneurs, Epidemic Sound doesn’t represent music, it owns it, buying directly from composers when tracks are created to give today’s generation of musicians a new way to make a living making music. Epidemic Sound is headquartered in Stockholm, but heard daily around the world. Start using Epidemic Sound today at www.epidemicsound.com.